In this Skift article, Dan Peltier reports that some of the traditionally biggest-spending US state DMOs spent less in 2015 than in previous years.

The Big Idea:

Depending on individual circumstances, a state DMO coming in under its annual marketing budget may or may not be a good thing; so neither a big budget nor a large spend guarantees the desired results.

Key points:

• US state tourism budgets have grown every fiscal year since 2010.
• Average FY 2016 budget is about $20.1M.
• Budget and spending are often two different things, in both absolute and relative terms.
• Actual spending in FY 2015 - Top 10 states:
  1. Hawaii $76.9M (-6.2%)
  2. Florida $74.8M (+7.7%)
  3. California $60M (-6.8%)
  4. Illinois $54.6M (+2.6%)
  5. Texas $49.4M (+14%)
  6. Michigan $29.0M (-10.2%)
  7. New York $25M (-18.5%)
  8. Arizona $24.6M (+6%)
  9. Virginia $18.8M (+1.0%)
  10. Louisiana $14.9M (+4.1%)

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It would be interesting to integrate some "results" metrics with these numbers. Will add to to-do list.

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